If you’re braving a Christmas lunch with housemates this year and you’ve put yourself forward to cook it. Don’t panic- we’ve got you covered.

This time of year isn’t about slaving away in a kitchen, it’s about enjoying a drink… or six to get into the Christmas spirit.

Just follow these tips and cooking hacks and you’ll making a banging Christmas lunch, without the hassle.

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Turkey

Men's Fitness

Unless you’re cooking for more a load of people, first we’d say buy a turkey crown- which comfortably feeds eight. It’s quicker to cook and easier to carve.

But if you’re determined to cook the whole beast, to avoid stringy, dry, tasteless turkey we’d recommend cooking it overnight by using this recipe. Though we wouldn’t advise you to do this coming in after a night out (just so you could have a lie in).

Whatever you do, don’t throw away the resting juices- that’ll form a beautiful gravy later on.

Roast Potatoes

If you don’t want to spend a load of time in the kitchen peeling pesky potatoes, you can boil your potatoes for a few moments beforehand and then submerge them in ice water- the skin should come right off… as shown below.

Giphy

When it comes to making some beautiful roast potatoes, preheat a tray of goose fat (or oil if you’re veggie) in the oven until scalding hot. Once you’ve boiled the spuds , drain them in a colander and give them a shake to fluff them up.

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Sprinkle with a little bit of flour before dropping them all on to the hot tray. A bit of garlic, herbage and a fair bit of salt wouldn’t go a miss either. Follow these rules and you should have some banging roasties.

The Food Lab

Vegetables

Rex

For a lot less hassle on the day, prep and cook your vegetables the day before and just ping them in the microwave on the day until boiling hot- no-one will even notice.

For the dreaded Brussels sprouts – which your nan has had on a simmer since December 1st – treat them like you would cabbage. Give them a slice up and fry them up in some butter with bacon and chestnuts. Season them and it’s happy days. Simple.

Simply Recipes

Gravy

Remember the gravy juices you kept back earlier? Well now’s the time to use them. For a mega quick gravy, use this recipe. But basically put the tin you used to cook the turkey on the heat, whisk in some flour, add the juices, stock and white wine. Simmer it for about 10/15 minutes and job’s done.

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Mulled Cider

John Wright

You’ll probably be too full on dinner to have a dessert, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have something sweet.

Ditch the mulled wine- mulled cider is where it’s at. When you’re warming it up, just add sugar to sweeten it a bit and whatever spices you fancy. We like a bit of vanilla, cinnamon and star anise in ours, but you can mix it up with orange or lemon peel to make it fresher.

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Do all this and your mates will love you, if it all goes tits up just get a ready meal… we won’t judge.